The climate crises drives transition towards sustainable transport and renewable energy production, which has created a “battery revolution”, where lithium ion batteries have a prominent role thanks to high electric performance characteristics. Establishing a circular economy for the battery value chain is considered as necessary for the long term sustainability of this devopment as well as to secure access to strategic elements and materials necessary for future electric vehicle and energy storage batteries. At the same time, voices are raised concerning the negative environmental impact from battery production and recycling processes. The effects are believed to be mitigated by reuse of automotive batteries in other applications, thus prolonging the battery life significantly and delaying the time for recycling. Consequently, the substances used in cell manufacture today be tied up for a long time, 20-30 years, before they are recovered and available for production of new batteries or other products.

Battery cell production from recycled materials create new challenges, since substances extracted from a waste stream can be expected to have a different composition compared in terms of contaminants compared to pristine materials from mining. Both electrochemical activity and energy efficiency can be impacted in a negative direction.

The lecture is an obligatory teaching test for those applying for admittance as docent and it should be possible for students and others with basic academic education in the relevant field to follow it. The lecture will last for 45 minutes and afterwards the audience may ask questions. The lecture will be given in Swedish.